Ambition Technology Blog

A competency interview (also referred to as a situational or behavioral based interview) is a style of interviewing often used to evaluate a candidate’s ability to perform a role or task. It is based on the premise that past performance is the best indicator of future ability and increasingly, companies are using competency based interviews as part of the selection process for experienced recruitment. It can give valuable insights into an individual’s preferred style of working and help predict likely scenario based behaviors which may occur in the role.

Most clients these days will use a competency or behavioral type interview, and this will most likely be combined with technical questions and questions about industry experience. Interviewers will ask questions that require candidates to demonstrate that they have a particular skill or a “key competency” the firm is looking for. Candidates will be asked to do this using situational examples from their life experiences, to illustrate their personality, skill set and individual competencies to the interviewer.

Competency interviews may also feature questions that probe candidates on their knowledge of the company and industry they have applied to. This type of interview question tests candidates on their motivation and commitment to career.

A typical competency based interview will last for one hour. At most major firms, competency interviews will also be standardised. Consequently all applicants can expect to be asked identical questions.

What are Competencies?

A competency is a particular quality that a company’s recruiters have decided is desirable for employees to possess for a particular role. During interviews and assessment processes competencies are used as benchmarks that assessors use to rate and evaluate candidates.

In interviews recruiters look for evidence of competencies by asking candidates competency based questions. This style of question forces candidates to give situational examples of times in the past when they have performed particular tasks or achieved particular outcomes using certain skills.

Key Competencies

A firm will usually isolate several key skills or “key competencies” to look for in candidates at interview. You will be graded in terms of each competency based upon your answers to competency based questions.

Employers typically use some of the following as their key competencies:

- Teamwork
- Ability to influence
- Conflict resolution
- Manage conflicting priorities
- Commercial awareness
- Career motivation
- Decision making
- Communication
- Leadership
- Trustworthiness & Ethics
- Results orientation
- Problem solving
- Organisation

Typical Competency Based Interview Structure

A typical competency question could be: “Describe two situations where you have had to work as part of a team.” When asked a question like this, you should be able to talk for several minutes about your participation to a particularly strong team you have been part of in the past and how your sense of teamwork helped lead a task or project to successful completion.

You should have an idea before the interview of the experiences from your life that you could use as examples to demonstrate the key competencies of the firm to which you are applying. You are likely to have to provide at least two examples for each competency during your interview.

It is quite acceptable to ask for and to use a few moments of thinking time before answering competency questions. If necessary, simply notify your interviewer by explaining you “may need to think about this for a few moments”. Once you have thought of a good example to use, continue with your answer.

Answering Competency Based Interview Questions:

It is important to ensure that your answers area clear and concise. In order to do this you must think about the structure of your answer. They key to providing a really strong answer is to use the CAR acronym:
C ircumstance
A ction
R esult

By clearly describing the circumstance, your specific action or contribution and driving home the result or benefit to the business you will ensure your answers are punchy and clearly demonstrate the competency that client is looking for.